Looking At Central Heating For The New Home
When considering whether you should buy a home, central heating installation is something you should take a closer look at. This is particularly true with rising energy costs.
Things to Consider With Heating
As you inspect potential homes, the central heating installation should be foremost in your mind. If your new home hasn’t had central heating installation, now is your chance to work out where it should go.
1. Layout – You might be surprised to learn that the layout of your home plays a large part in determining the central heating costs. We would all love a home with beautiful high ceilings, if only for aesthetic purposes, but think about how these could be a heating issue in the long-term. The problem is that heat rises, so you will need more heating to heat the entire home when you have high ceilings. If you’re wanting to reduce your heating bills, a home with high ceilings probably isn’t the best one to choose.
A second layout issue concerns the number of stories in the residence. While a tri-level home or townhouse may seem enticing, how are you going to heat the lower floors? Homes with 3 stories usually suffer with the zone effect problem. The rooms on the bottom of the tri-level are always cool, while the top floor may be close to a sauna. So, without a very modern and cost-effective approach to central heating, homes with 3 floors will find that energy bills go up considerably.
2. Control Areas – There is one popular way of reducing the need for central heating in homes with high ceilings, and that is to opt for a controllable heating system which will make life a lot easier. Something else to consider is a central heating system that you can control, so you wont lose as much heat in a home with high ceilings or multiple stories. Many modern heating systems allow you to isolate particular sections of the home you wish to heat. These can be a godsend for larger homes where certain rooms are not used often. It may be that the home you want to move to hasn’t already had central heating installation, which means a controllable system is something you can think about before you buy.
3. Vents – Many homeowners forget to consider vent locations. It has to be said that the vent layout in some homes leaves a lot to be desired. You only need to think about vents underneath the windows to realise that this is a waste of heat and energy. Another thing to look out for are any rooms in your new home that don’t have any vents, as these rooms will take a while to get warm and consequently mean your heating has to be turned on for longer.
If it is a new home you’re thinking of buying, the central heating installation shouldn’t pose much of a problem as all the details above should have been taken into consideration by the developers. Just be wary of older homes, as their high ceilings and generally larger rooms can make your central heating and energy bills rocket.
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